Birding on Miller Bay: A Bizarre Rescue!

When I met expert birder, Bill Zwartjes, at the marina where we start our Miller Bay bird counts, it was a typical August morning.  We spotted a handful of crows, a belted kingfisher, some hybrid gulls, a couple of great blue herons, and the ubiquitous Canada geese. But then things took an unexpected turn.

We were counting at a very low tide so it was mostly mudflats between the Nooschkum sandspit and the marina boat launch.  While Bill used his birding scope to count the peeps, (little shorebirds, especially Sandpipers), I noticed something fluttering in the mud about 10 feet away.  I pointed it out to Bill and we realized it was a small bird in distress. Bill was so kind as to sacrifice his clean boots to muck his way to this little guy, a Western Sandpiper, who seemed caught somehow in the mud.

As Bill carefully lifted him, he came up with a Littleneck clam dangling from his toe!  What are the chances of a small bird stepping on an open clam shell in the mud and then having it clamp shut?!! The clam was much heavier than the bird so he was stuck and surely would have drowned when the tide came back in.

Luckily Bill had a pocket knife, so while he held the bird, I was able to pry open the clam and release his toe.  Bill carried him to the edge of the boat ramp and released him back onto the mudflats.  Much to our delight, he scurried off to join his friends and acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

It was such a random thing that Bill and I could hardly believe it had happened and that we were able to help.  It made our day!

by Nancy D’Archangel

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